Excerpt: The Dressmaker

She followed the sound to the sewing room – muffled heart rending sobs. It didn’t sound like any of the ladies of the castle. They should all be sleeping off last night’s Ball. She eased the door open and slipped inside. A forced silence assailed her ears. The room appeared empty . . . but it did not have that un-occupied feel.

She scanned the room. The looms sat silent, shuttles set aside and yarns bundled waiting. Piles of mending tumbled together in one corner. Half finished gowns draped tailors’ manikins. Rich embroidered satin glowed soft and rich in the early morning light drifting in through the wide windows. An expectant hush settled over the room as if at any moment laughing, gossiping seamstresses would burst into the room.

There, behind the changing screen, a small, scuffling movement and a stifled sniff. She tip toed across the room on silent, feather light feet. A tin, startled gasp whispered past her ears. She peeked around the screen.

A tear swollen face looked up at her and crumpled into near hysterical sobbing. She sank to her knees and pulled the youngster into her lap. She hugged the girl close and rubbed soothing circles in her back, muttering soft comfort.

“Such heartbreak,” she whispered into clouds of baby soft, fine dark hair escaping from prim braids. “What has you crying so, Allianna?”

The eight year old lifted her face tear streaked face and held out a well loved, chipped porcelain doll in torn undergarments. “Young Mistress said I was nothing but a stupid house servant and had no right to pretty dresses even for my doll. When I said I wasn’t a stupid servant, she pushed me down. Then she tore Princess Anne’s dress off and threw it in the fire. She tried to throw Princess Anne in there too but I grabbed her away.

“She said she’d do the same thing to me for putting on airs and yanked at my new dress but I ran out. See, the lace tore. Papa’s going to be so disappointed. He just gave this dress to me because of the Ball.” More tears threatened to spill over her cheeks. She sniffed and continued.

“Young Mistress never comes in here. So I hid behind the screen. She can’t take my new dress away can she, Roweena?” Allianna smoothed the soft blue polished cotton of the full shirted dress. A long piece of lace trimming hung limp where it had been torn away in the girl’s flight from her tormentor. Fresh tears cascaded down her face at the sight of the violated lace and a gapping rip in the flounce.

“No youngling, she can’t,” Roweena answered. “We’ll have a word with Mrs. Hoskins later. This morning she has the Ball to clean up after and she is in none too good a mood right now with half the serving staff suffering large heads from too much dancing and an over indulgence in ale last night.

“Governess McGrovan is probably sleeping off the late night herself and did not hear Young Mistress Geneille creep out of bed.” She pulled a generous sized hankie out of one apron pocket and wiped the girl’s face free of tears. “Now blow,” she said offering the slightly dampened square to Allianna.

“Come along and bring Princess Anne. Let’s see what we can do to set you both to rights again.” Roweena helped Allianna to her feet, scooped up the doll and gave her to the girl, took her hand and led her out into the sewing room. She pulled a fat cushioned chair over under the window where the morning light streamed through in a bright cheerful blaze, and then set a low matching stool in front of it.

“Please, go get me a needle and a bobbin of blue thread, and one of white, out of the thread cabinet,” Roweena said as she pawed through a basket of sewing scraps. She pulled out several pieces of sapphire blue brocade too small to use as more than hem patches, a short length of frayed white lawn and several pieces of snagged lace that one of the castle ladies had removed from the Countess’s old gowns the day before. “These ought to work fine,” she said pulling a small pair of scissors from an apron pocket. She picked up Princess Anne and began to cut and measure, humming a bit to herself as she worked. In just a few moments she had the pieces cut for a new gown and under garments for the doll.

“Look what I found,” Allianna called from across the room, holding up a shining gold needle threaded with a long length of shimmering blue silk. “It matches my dress exactly.” She crossed the room and held out the glowing gold needle.

“Where was that?” Roweena asked thinking I don’t remember any of the ladies having a gold needle. Wonder if the Duchess’s Dressmaker lost it when she was in here a couple of days ago.

“It was stuck at the back of the thread cabinet. The blue caught my eye. When I pulled on the thread it fell into my hand,” Allianna answered. “See, it matches my dress.” A smile painted itself across the girl’s face as she skipped across the room. “You can sew me now!”

“Sit right here,” Roweena told the girl, and we’ll get you mended up in no time. “Turn so I can get to that rip.” She pulled a couple of pins out of a wrist cushion she had slipped onto her left arm, matched the edges of the gapping rip and tucked the drooping lace into place. “Now let me have the needle and thread,” she said holding out her hand.

Allianna dropped the glowing needle into her hand. The instant it touched her skin a bolt of recognition shot up Roweena’s arm and blazed into her brain. At last and well met! it seemed to say. Roweena gasped and snapped her fingers closed over the treasure. Her vision shimmered, wavered and blurred for a moment. She felt something deep inside shift, slide and lock into place with a near audible click. “Oh!” she gasped again and forced herself to take a deep breath. Then another, and another. The room spun in wicked dips and twirls in front of her eyes. Her stomach protested with a lurch and threatened upheaval.

Allianna stared into Roweena’s face. “Are you alright?” she asked. “You look kind of funny.”

Roweena closed her eyes and draped one arm across her forehead still clutching the gold needle in her other hand. “Give me just a moment,” she said. “All of a sudden I’m a little woozy.”

Roweena dropped her head on the back of the over stuffed chair and let the sun warm her upturned face. The cool morning breeze skipping through the open window brushed her cheeks and started to revive her. Wisps and snippets of visions danced on the back of her eye lids. Whirling rainbows of shining satin, richly embroidered brocade, lush velvet, delicate lace and sparkling lame` flashed through her mind as if every secret of all the world’s Master Dressmakers scrambled and fought to take up residence in her brain. Then they all settled into place as if they had made themselves comfortably at home. Her world stopped spinning and eased into place again.

Without a thought she knew how she would dress Princess Anne. She opened her eyes and let a shaky smile drift across her face. She patted the girl on the arm. “I’m fine,” she reassured her. “Let’s get your dress fixed,” she said sitting forward and gathering up the damaged portion of Allianna’s skirt.

The thread in the gold needle did indeed match the girl’s dress. The needle seemed to almost to jump to Roweena’s bidding as she mended the rent and reattached the torn lace. “Here,” she said, pulling a piece of white ribbon from the scrap basket. “If we add this and tie a small bow no one will even know the lace was mended.”

The needle was warm and almost vibrated in her hand as she stitched. Before she even knew what she’d done she stitched several blue rose buds across the ribbon and in the middle of the bow. “There all done,” Roweena said lifting the skirt to show the invisible mending and new adornment.

Allianna jumped up and twirled in circled spinning the wide full skirt around like a ballerina doing pirouettes. “It’s perfect,” she laughed, tears forgotten.

Roweena picked a piece of soft flowered flannel off the scrap pile, fashioned a soft wrap, draped it around Princess Anne and tied it on with a scrap of matching pink ribbon.

“Princess Anne has suffered a horrid shock,” Roweena told the girl in a solemn voice. “She needs rest and diligent care. Why don’t you take her back to your room and put her to bed. You’ll need to stay with her all day so she doesn’t wake up alone and become frightened again.”

“That would be awful wouldn’t it?” Allianna asked.

“I know I wouldn’t like it if I’d had a shock.”

“Alright, I’ll only leave my room when she’s well again.”

“Good. I’ll ask Cooke to send you a tray for tea with something special to temp Princess Anne’s appetite. Good food will help her fell better right away. You too.” Roweena added with a grin.

She stood, gently placed the doll in the girl’s open arms and led Allianna across to the door. “You go straight to your room. Take the servants’ hall and stairs.”

“I will.” The girl promised out the door and scurried down the hall.

Roweena sighed and drooped against the wall. A soft welcoming murmur tickled her ears. She looked down. She was still clutching the golden needle in one hand. What is it about you? She wondered slipping the needle into her needle case and dropping it into a secure corner of her apron pocket. She went back, returned the room to rights and gathered up the bits and pieces she had selected for Princess Anne’s new wardrobe. Visions of an exquisite sapphire gown worn by a Princess slipped in behind her eyes as she worked.